Albert Oehlen - Contemporary Art Part I New York Thursday, May 17, 2007 | Phillips

Create your first list.

Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.

  • Provenance

    Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin

  • Exhibited

    Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne, June 18 – September 5, 2004; Domus Artium 2002 Salamanca, December 9, 2004 – January 30, 2005; and Kunsthalle Nürnberg, Albert Oehlen: Peintures / Malerei 1980-2004 Selbstportrait mit 50millionenfacher Lichtgeschwindigkeit, April 28 – June 26, 2005

  • Literature

    R. Beil, C. Borgeaud, T. Groetz and I. Mercier, Albert Oehlen: Peintures / Malerei 1980-2004 Selbstportrait mit 50millionenfacher Lichtgeschwindigkeit, Zurich, 2004, p. 108 (illustrated)

  • Catalogue Essay

    “Following a self-imposed set of guidelines certainly gives you more momentum. Forbidding yourself certain things, believing in rules, is a good state to be in. That’s the way to develop as an artist, by giving yourself instructions what to do next. One rule could be don’t stick anything on to the picture surface. There are examples from art history where you can say, “See, if he hadn’t done that, it would have been better.” [laughs] But of course, everything you feel you should reject represents a form of temptation. When you view a work of art, you notice things you had written off can hold surprises after all. A few years ago, I might have said I would never have any truck with Body art, and then someone comes along who does it well, contrary to all your expectations. If you want to surprise yourself in painting, the obvious choice is to take things that you would normally not bother with and give them a try.

    They are all about discipline—like new year’s resolutions. One of mine was, ‘Paint slower.’ And I did so, over a period of years: slower and slower and slower. Originally my pictures were very impulsive—that was in the context of Bad Painting. I used to think the easiest thing is to paint fast, and the appropriate results will automatically follow. Then it occurred to me: why not paint slower? [laughs] It sounds awfully banal but it had a great many consequences.” (Albert Oehlen, in interview with J. Heiser and J. Verwoert, “Ordinary Madness,” Frieze 78, 2003, pp 106-111).

20

Spitzer Spion

2000
Oil on canvas.
95 3/4 x 95 3/4 in. (243.2 x 243.2 cm).
Signed and dated "A. Oehlen 000" on the reverse.

Estimate
$200,000 - 300,000 

Sold for $456,000

Contemporary Art Part I

17 May 2007
7pm New York